Indie Games – Slender: The Eight Pages

I’ve been meaning to play Slender: The Eight Pages for quite some time. After all, a lot of blogs have been talking about the experience of playing the game and more recently, some bigger publications have also noted how effective and genuinely horrifying it is. For those of you who have never heard of it, Slender is a free, independent survival horror game that uses the Unity engine. The main objective of the indie title is to collect eight pages that are placed in different landmarks which include vehicles, buildings, rocks, trees, tunnels, fuel tanks and so on and so forth.

The only tool the player has is a flashlight with limited energy. Additionally, the player can run for a short period before running out of breath. Interestingly, the way in which the player interacts with the environment is almost nonexistent, since the basic controls only allow you to move, aim your flashlight, run and grab notes. Why would you need to run though? Once the player has collected at least one note, the Slender Man (a dark, tall, faceless figure that has the ability to teleport from place to place) makes an appearance and if you look at it (him?) for more than a few seconds, the character you control becomes insane and a distorted image of Slender Man invades the screen. In other words, if you look at it more than you should, it’s instant game over.

I could go on and on about how terrifying this game is, but Slender is a title that must be experienced to truly appreciate it. Let me just tell you that the atmosphere is really well put together and that both the minimalist graphics and haunting sound effects complement the experience remarkably well. Finally, it’s worth noting that a sequel called Slender: The Arrival is in development by ParsecProductions and Blue Isle Studios. Unlike its predecessor, Slender: The Arrival won’t be a free game.

The latest version of Slender: The Eight Pages (which is available for both Windows and Mac) can be downloaded for free on its official website.